February 26, 2006	Sunday	Muharram 27, 1427

ISLAMABAD, Feb 25: The import bill of petroleum products rose by 65.48 per cent during the first seven months (July-Jan) of the current fiscal over the corresponding period last year thus putting more pressure on the country’s foreign exchange reserves.

Official figures available with Dawn showed that the total import bill of petroleum products reached $3.520 billion during the July-Jan period this year as against $2.127 billion over the same period of the last year.

On monthly basis, the import bill of oil increased by 90.96 per cent to $486.996 million during January 2006 as against $255.029 million over the same month of the last year.

Of these import of petroleum products recorded a growth of 53.03 per cent and petroleum crude 74.57 per cent during the period under review over the same period of last year.

As the oil price already touched over $62 per barrel, the oil import bill would increase further during the upcoming months, which would further widen the trade deficit.

Analysts believed that this year the trade deficit would be in the range of $10 billion to $11 billion following the rising trend in oil price in international market plus massive increase in imports of vehicles and food items.

With this increase in the oil import bill, the trade deficit increased by 127.31 per cent to $6.496 billion during the July-Jan period this year as against $2.858 billion over the same period of the last year. The target for the current fiscal was projected at $4.16 billion, which was already surpassed.

The second biggest component of the trade deficit was the import of the machinery group, which recorded a hefty growth of 44.28 per cent to $4.009 billion during the July-Jan period this year as against $2.778 billion over the same period earlier.

Of these import of motor vehicles registered a robust growth of 48.39 per cent in value during the period under review over the last year. The import of aircraft, ship and boats increased by 92.04 per cent, agriculture implements 198.15 per cent, electrical machinery and apparatus 58.96 per cent, power generating machinery by 45.49 per cent, construction and mining machinery by 3.85 per cent, office machines by 4.15 per cent during the first seven months this year over the same months of the last year.

However, the import of textile machinery declined by 7.59 per cent during the period under review over the same period last year. The decrease in the import of textile machinery was in the range of over 14.83 per cent during the month of January 2006 over the same month last year.

This would be an alarming situation for the government, which contradicted their claim that the blanket exemption from duties would result into expansion in the textile sector.

The import bill of consumer goods increased by 42.26 per cent during the July-Jan period this year over the last year; import of metal group increased by 73.19 per cent and agriculture and other chemicals by 23.41 per cent during the same period this year over the last year.

In consumer goods — import of wheat rose by 225.03 per cent, tea by 8.60 per cent, sugar 9716.65 per cent and pulses by 53.77 per cent during the July-Jan period of the current fiscal over the same period earlier.

The textile group imports rose by 69.18 per cent to $323.608 million during the July-Jan period this year as against $191.283 million. Of these import bill of synthetic increased by 64.27 per cent, synthetic and artificial silk yarn 89.16 per cent and worn clothing by 20.33 per cent.